Twin Mass Shootings Hit U S

It's as of America were in the climactic throes of some horrible disease of violence and hatred.  Last Sunday it was a mass shooting at the Garlic festival in Gilroy.  Yesterday at 10:39 there was a call of an active shooter at a Wall Mart in El Paso in the Mexican district only a few blocks away from the border.  This shooter just turned 21 and he put a manifesto on line a few minutes before the shooting and they wanted to make sure it was genuine.  It is, and the guy admitted that his mission is to shoot as many Mexicans as he could.  He gave up without a fight and no shots were exchanged with the police.  He was taken alive.  He killed twenty people and put 26 in the hospital meaning that 46 people were hit from his AK 47.   Patrick Crusius is from Allan, Texas near Dallas and it’s 600 miles away.  He had to plan for this shooting.  Yesterday afternoon they had Governor Abbot and the major and the chief of police in a major press conference where they were still non-committal.  Nobody wants to hear what the president has to say.  He’s the one who created a climate in which this violence can occur.   Then this morning there were reports in the morning news of a second shooting.  This one was in the entertainment district of Dayton, Ohio.  There are a lot of theaters, bars and restaurants and nine people were killed in this mass shooting.  27 people were injured.  The cops only took a minute to respond to this shooting and the guy was shot dead.  That’s the expeditious way to solve a problem.  This guy was wearing body armor and had extra magazines of amo with him.  This guy was ready for a protracted fight and if the cops hadn’t taken him out when they did, he would have killed a whole lot more people.  Strangely the news has tended to focus on the El Paso shooting, but the press conference they just had on Leo Laporte was on the Dayton shooting.  The funny thing is that early last evening I prayed a prayer to God “and if anybody else is preparing to do a mass shooting like around here or something I pray that they decide not to do it”.  Should I now thank God for keeping me safe?  Two things pop out at me.  The one line of course is, “Well it’s too soon to start being political and talking about gun bills.  Wait till things settle down a few weeks”.  The problem here is this was the 250^th mass shooting we’ve had this year and there is just no time for things to “settle down”.   The other, and I expect Paul and Judy to use this line, is the line about “Well you can’t blame trump or anything; this is just another sign that we are in the ”End Times” and as such is to be expected.   That free pass card God has been using for forty years has long expired.  You can’t use that “end times” crap as an excuse any more.  We have all grown old waiting for the “end times” to be resolved.  I’ve heard this line since I was in my twenties and I’m an old man now.  Hopefully Joe Biden will be elected president next year.  We need a man of calm disposition to tranqualize the American public with soothing words. 

Theologically we are to assume as students that everything a theology teacher says we can believe with an unshakable certainty.  Therefore when said teacher says that Jesus died for our sins volentarily and said teacher says that Christ was always omnicient then we can believe that.  Since Jesus was God he was always superior to us and knows more than we do at any given time.  Then how come some preachers say that Jesus had to "trust God for the promise of a resurrection" as though it weren't a certainty.  It's like Stephan signing all his property to his wife right after they get married "trusting in her" that said arrangement is only "temporary" and done for a legal manuver.   I bring this up because in Jesus Christ Superstar Jesus has his hour of doubt before going to the cross not being sure that it's the will of God.  This is a theological impossability.   We also know from theology school that if God never created a thing- - not the universe or stars or us- - then his worth would not diminish one but.  God is also omni-value, if you will, in addition to all of the other omnis God has.  Therefore why would God "sacrifice" his son to die for the sins of people who if they never existed, God's glory would not be subtracted one bit?   I have one more for you.  This odious "agregate worth" doctrine.  This is like the U S economy.  The agribate worth of the economy is constantly rising because of all of the rich people in the world throwing off the economic indicators with their near infinite worth.  Meanwhile us peons out here remain poor.  It's like this Simpson's episode where there was this baseball team full of duds.  But also Daryl Strawberry was on the team.  Every time he gets up to bat he hits a home run.  If you were to acquire that team you would be doing it to get Daryl Strawberry.  The others would quickly discard.  So it is when scripture says that God so lover the world that he sent his only son into the world that whoever believes in him should not die but have everlasting life.  Chuck Smith puts it this way.  Sure God loved the world in the agragate but it loved it because of the treasure in it.  Jesus died for the treasure in the world, which may not include you and me but only those "elect" fundamentalists, who are sure of who they are.  They think they are perfect it.  If these people were ever to ask for forgiveness from you your response should be to tell them "Well I would forgive you, but it's awfully hard to forgive someone who thinks they are already perfect".  (Selah)  It is said that there are no moral requirements to becoming a Born Again Christian.  But if we don't have the required "Faith" we are "Baad!" and therefor for this reason to be condemned as not worthy- - - because we "rejected" God.  Christians love to talk a lot about rejection they have suffered.  And yet as Trump conservatives they are busily REJECTING the majority of Americans who "in the agrigate" are not necessarly white or married or over 35 or Bible Thumping Gun Toting red blooded Americans from the heartland.  Pardon me if I said the same thing in the previous posting.  Did it ever occur to these people that "building up your faith muscles" so you can "believe God for more" is not in the Bible?   Being counted WORTHY not for your deeds but rather what you have been GIVEN is not my idea of true morality or virtue.  As soon as you can get the stench of Trump off of religion, I might we willing to take a second look at it sometime.  

How to Best Get Rid of Trump

Well, there are people that no natter what Trump does as president will stick steadfastly to him and my brother is one of these.  No matter how he alligns himself with white nationalists and racists or how many offensive tweets or how many eastern cities he bashes, they will say that to criticize Trump in any way is to disrespect the president of the United States.  I'm still a little stunned when I hear these words from someone but it's how vast millions of people in America's heartland apparently feel.  We are told that the forty percent of the people who are white and married and over 35 and Protestant Bible thumping gun toting Americans will vote for him because Donald Trump willl somehow find a way due to election manipulation to stretch that 40% into a majority just like he did last time.  Don't these people find it strange that there is not one word Trump has uttered that indicates that he does NOT want Russia's help in the next election and in fact is counting on it.  Then we have Moscow Mitch, who killed the voting reform measure in the senate last week.  This whole bill is just some "conspiracy by democrats" to somehow ruin things for next year. 

I didn't see Tuesday's debate because they gave it poor publicity.  I know of two other left leaning people that somehow couldn't find it either.  My internet was out for Monday and Tuesday myself so I didn't have a chance of seeing it.  But we learned from it that Sanders and Warren did well.  We come to Wednesday''s debate and that one lasted two and a half hours, which is too long.  What stick out in the first debate was the four moderate democrats there.  What stuck out in the second night was that the thing was quite left leaning.  But no matter how far left the party leans anything is better than reelecting Trump for another four years.  Most of us can agree on that.   People want to eliminate all fossel fuel sources in ten years and also have free health care for illegal aliens just over here from the border.  They want to de-criminalize crossing the border.  Apparently we want to re-institute nation-wide bussing and one congresswoman wants us to kissy up to Assad of Syria.  I guess what I want to know is what happened to the political center or even a little left of center.  Joe Biden is looking better and better as a candidate with each passing day as the one most sure to win.  A lot of Democrats can beat Trump in the polls now but election day will be another matter, as we have all lived through in 2016.  You need at LEAST a ten point lead in the polls now to have a chance at an electoral victory on election day next year.   Joe Biden is the strongest candidate in the rust belt, the Great Lakes region where we apparently need the electoral votes the most.  Of course it will be a Gerentocracy no matter who wins with both candidates well into their seventies on election day.  Here is some other stuff I guess I'll paste over from earlier this week.

But to my delight the internet was working normally and I didn’t even have to reboot the modem.  I watched “Democracy Now”.  Also to my liking they covered the debate last night.  Bernie Sanders seems to have gotten his second wind and won the debate.  They said there were four conservatives on last night.  There was Hickenluper of Colorado and the Montana governor and Delany and one other person.  Budajudge made some intelligent comments.  They were talking about immigration a lot.  I wasn’t that impressed with Elizabeth Warren.  Then it was Stephanie Miller.  She also talked about the debate.  I had her on till she went off the air at nine.  I got my medication at the window just before breakfast, and I got my patch.  We had Raison Bran and I had sugar to put on it.   Also before breakfast at six or so I talked to Millie who wanted me to go and get coffee for her and offered to buy me a cup.  I was happy to get a cup.  I bought mine and her cup at the bakery and paid out of that twenty she gave me and fixed hers the way she likes it. 

.   I watched all of the opening statements, of course.  Joe Biden spoke in more simple terms than many of the others to relate to the average America.  Harris spoke in rather complex terms all evening.  I think her description of her health care plan was near incomprehensible.   Joe Biden just wanted to extend and fix Obama Care and add a public option.  The field was rather left wing.  Joe Biden was attacked because he supported the crime bill of 1994.  He can’t help it if Black people commit crimes.   He drew the same criticism with Camille Harris and her stint as California Attorney General.  Biden was attacked because of his stand on bussing and also his voting for the Iraq War in 2003.  We all wanted Saddam Hussein out of leadership.  We accomplished that quickly.  There were people who said it was too late to do anything about climate change and we should all just move to higher ground.  Joe Biden’s plan was aggressive but fell short of the pipe dreams of those who want to end all fossle fuel usage in ten years.  Mayo continued to be around outside and she waited for Phyllis to show up after eight and then she waited longer for Phyllis to leave and return with cat food.  There was basically nothing on TV.   I watched some of Chef Ramsey and various cakes that people were presenting that varied widely in quality.

.  I forgot that the Talosian episode on Star Trek featured the desire of Captain Pike to return to his body as a young man.  If God let us return to the bodies of our younger selves I could pick a random date like August 1^st of 1972.  Tim and Paul were both still living at home and all three grandparents were still alive.  Better still Becky Daniels was still around.   The Sheffields had not moved yet, which I guess meant that Willis was still around.   I’ve thought about it and any favor of God that didn’t involve my being drastically younger than I am now- - would be a favor in vain.   Right now I think I’m clinically depressed.  I’ve lost the ability to enjoy life.   “God” would be a better source of pleasure than some Talosian because his knowledge of our desires is infinite. 

I guess that's enough for right now.  I hope to pick up the blogging pace. 

The Big Muller Let-down

Muller didn’t volunteer a darned thing as far as new information we didn’t already know.  He would not be “tricked” into reading from the report and having clips people could use on the news.  Getting any answer from him was like pulling teeth because he kept saying “I’m not here to talk about that” or “that’s outside my domain”.   He would not even admit that the reason why charges weren’t filed against Trump is because a court in 1974 said you couldn’t indict a sitting president.  The best we got from him was that a president could be indicted after he left office.  Trump got on the air seven minutes before two and crowed like a rooster about what a great day this was for the Republican party and America.  The chances of impeachment now are less than zero.  Basically Trump wanted the democrats to fold their hands and abandon any thoughts about winning the election next year.   Muller spoke before two committees for seven hours from about twenty to six to twenty to one.  All the commentators could say is how tired Muller was and how he’s seventy-five years old and he’s retired and all.  Even Trump said that Muller’s performance was a bad one.   I made a lot of mental notes as the interview was in progress but unfortunately I didn’t write anything down.  There was a lot of minutia that could be explored.  The silver lining of the thing was that the Republicans were also frustrated in their attempts to put words in Muller’s mouth.  They argued that a prosecutor’s job is to lodge charges and if you don’t issue indictments then you have no business doing a report on things that were NOT charged.  This is a difficult argument to best.  But all in all I think the democrats’ decision to even have Muller on did their side more harm than good.  As if by conspiracy the sessions were very tedious to listen to.  I would only say that the news people did manage to salvage a few interesting clips.   Muller may have sacrificed and served his country in time of need but he sure as hell didn't serve the Democratic Party when they really needed him.  

Let’s talk about the reports of the resurrection of Jesus in the Bible.  Let’s bring forth examples old and new.   Here’s an old one.  Three women were on their way to the tomb and asked themselves on the way there, “But who will roll away the stone”?  This is a good question and any other group of women would say, “We need to go back and bring a man with us and get a crowbar and the wedging tools we’ll need”.   Keep in mind it was really early in the morning and the likelyhood of seeing someone at the grave site was very unlikely.  Why were they even on their way to the tomb this Sunday morning.  Supposedly to bring spices to put on the body.  But in fact it says in John that this preparation for burial had already taken plate late Friday afternoon.  It would have been taboo in that culture to disturb a dead body.  The entire trip makes no sense.   We then have seemingly endless reports about “seeing the gardener” at the tomb.  Or- - - then it’s the gardener and all of a sudden it’s Jesus.  Or they are told “Jesus is not here” and a minute later he shows up.  Or they are told "Jesus is not here.  Go to Galilee and you will see him there” when another gospel says that whatever you do “Stay in the city of Jerusalem.  In the book of John it ends with the disciples eating fish that they had just caught on the lake of Galilee.  There is no thought about Pentacost or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit back in Jerusalem.   Here are a couple of brand new examples for you to ponder.  It was said in getting a replacement for Judas, who betrayed Jesus, that he must be a member of the original group of  120 men and that “He must have been with our group all along”.  The trouble with this one is that ALL of the disciples betrayed him on Maundy Thursday.  There is no one who would stand with him.  So by that line of reasoning there would be no candidate qualified to take Judas’ place.  Finally I’d like you to chew on this one.  When Peter got up and made a speech on Pentacost, he talked about the resurrection and Jesus sitting on the right hand of the Father and all.  But at no time did he make reference to Jesus ascending to heaven in a cloud at the Mount of Olives.  The question is that if hundreds or perhaps thousands of people saw this event, why was it even necessary for God  to generate a whirling wind and tongues to get peoples’ attention at Pentacost?  It would seem as though the whole “Gospel” thing would have been kicked off ten days previously when there would be hundreds or more of mini-gospels running around talking about the man who ascended into the clouds.  Or when St Peter was going on and on about how "Sinful men killed the prince of life" how much better if Jesus had held out just ten days longer Peter could have introduced a live Jesus right there to the crowd.  But then we have a reference in John about Jesus saying to his chosen “And now I am no more in the world”.  What did Jesus mean by that?  Was his resurrection just a spiritual thing as many maintain?  It would seem as best the resurrection was a highly secret thing not seen by just anybody.  It seems that nobody but the elect ever witnessed this at all.  This would conform to Isaiah 53 when it says that Jesus was reckoned as dead by his own generation.  If he was reckoned as dead, then how could ANYBODY witness his appearance? 

Justice John Paul Sevens Dies

Former Justice John Paul Stevens died yesterday at age 99.  He had been appointed to the bench by President Ford in 1975 as a moderate.  He evolved into a strident liberal.  He left the court in 2010 and so had nine good years of retirement.  He wanted to abolish the second amendment as a relic from the eighteenth century.  I didn’t know that about him but it takes guts.

Los Angeles has a major rat infestation problem and California is the worst state for rats behind Illinois.  The legislature voted to ban the most effective rodenticide against the rats on environmental grounds.  You heard the expression about “giving a rat’s ass”.  Well they have “swamp rats” that are as large as fifteen pounds and they have frickisee of rat that involves eating the hind quarters only and fixing it up with a little hot sauce and red wine and other ingrediants in Louisiana.  For some reason they don’t want to use bug spray on these ten plus pound rats so they have trained dogs just to point to the rats when they see them.  Apparently the dogs are afraid of them and will not attack.  The trouble of course is that everyone is afraid of the homeless lobby because we can trace all the rats to the homeless who leave trash and food all around.   I don’t know.  Don’t they have general hygene regulations an y more? 

Two thirds of the people who get alzheimers are women and it’s not just because women live longer than men.  It’s a sex related genetic component involving the production of plaque in the brain.  Naturally scientists want to cling to every bit of research they can muster.

Today a vote was taken in the house to begin impeachment procedings against Trump.  Most likely it failed.  I don’t know that yet.  A previous vote of a similar nature only got sixty votes.  They want to hear Muller’s testimony first.  Muller was supposed to testify before congress today but it was postponed till next Wednesday the 24^th to give congressmen a better chance at formulating questions.  Of course if past behavior predicts future results, in 2015 nobody gave Trump a chance of being elected President.  They said he wouldn’t even take the job if elected.  Now Trump is clinging tenatiously to power.  Of course we had the Russian mess and the Julian Assange mess.  You know all of the factors and the president is banking on all those factors repeating themselves again this time.  Of course the economy just passed the tenth year of recovery.  That’s ten years as opposed to just nine years for the famous boom of the ‘sixties.  If the economy is still good a year from now there’s no telling what will happen despite now trailing by ten points in the polls.  Trump has beaten the polls before.  Meanwhile all of us will grow old in vain anticipation of some big “turning of the political tide”, which never occurs. 

At about two I went down to see Dr Saran.  I missed refreshments, apparently.  There was a short line and Silva was behind me.  She gave Kevin a cookie.  When I got in my temperature was 97.7 and my blood pressure was 124 over 70.  This is despite just having had a cigarette and being on the nicotine patch.  I told the doctor I was smoking a lot less.  He asked me if I ever had the colonoscopy and I said I hadn’t and I didn’t want one.  He said “Well if you feel uncomfortable about having one you don’t have to have it.  I said that was fine with me.  I owe God one for removing that albitros over my head all these months.  Just in case any of you are wondering Christianity is not racist.  Jesus was Jewish and not Nordic European or whatever.  Christianity and Nazi Norse myths are not compatible.  We sing in church “In Christ there is no east or west in him no south or north, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.  The apostle Paul writes “We are of one blood” and I believe he means- - race.  There is no “black” blood and “white” blood or anything like that.  Blood is one color, red.  

ICE was supposed to have conductive raids yesterday of illegal aliens yesterday but it didn’t happen and everybody in the media was surprised it didn’t.  There was talk that they might do it today because people let their guard down and were going back to work and taking their kids to school and getting out of the house.  I’d like to think Trump’s gone yellow on the issue but I’m not sure.

Sometimes I wish I could write a major treaties on the benefits of Christianity in my life.  You know, “What God has done for me”.  I guess he’s kept bad things from happening to me that otherwise would have.  This is what Pastor Don said to me back in the late ‘eighties.  At the time I wasn’t ready to receive it but now I see things differently.  He has kept me from horrible diseases such as cancer, and he’s given me the blessings of living in the United States.  That’s always something to be grateful for.  I guess you could say that God has been “patient” with me and putting up with my many faults. 

Saturday July the 13^th was Stonehenge day in New York City.  It’s the day the sun shines right down the street, the deep valleys, at sunset.  The shadows are just starting to shift around here so you get a little shade after dinner before the tree shadow arrives.  To celebrate the 42^nd anniversary of New York’s power failure in 1977 they had another power failure Saturday night right when they were doing all of their concerts like at Madison Square Garden and Broadway.  A transformer caught fire.

Around here it was the ABC network news and Eye Witness.  I had a speck of GH on.  We had a turkey sandwich for dinner with mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert.  I lent Mario another cigarette before dinner when nobody was around.   Tux no longer has his flea collar.  

Let’s hear it for Attorney General Barr.  He screwed up royal again.  Do you remember the case of Eric Garner?  He was arrested for selling bootleg cigarettes on the street in New York.  But the cop put a knee to his chest or something or maybe his neck.  At any rate Eric Garner said “I can’t breathe” - - - eleven times he said “I can’t breathe" and he finally died.  That was five years ago and tomorrow the statute of limitations expires and the justice department was “divided” and Barr made the final decision.  This is obviously another reason for Black people never to consider voting for Trump. 

Tropical Storm Barry Bears Down on New Orleans

Today is the tenth anniversary of when President Obama and Hillary helped out in the coup in Honduras that overthrew a democratically elected president who cared about the people and had many social programs- - and he was replaced with just another despotic dictator who oppresses the people.  The guy in July of 2009 was overthrown with US help because he was a "Social democrat" or whatever Bernie Sanders claims to be.  This would not do, especially because this pre 2009 leader was said to be getting just a little friendly with Hugo Shavaz.  We wanted someone who was business friendly and also drug cartel friendly. 

Trump's secretary of labor, the one involved in all of the Jeffrey Epstein stuff,  has apparently resigned.  If this is true it is a good thing and a small step taken by Trump to purge his administration of corruption.  I heard another official was arrested with child pornography on his phone.  Trump would not be at 44% in the polls in my oppinion if impeachment procedings got started. 

New Orleans is in trouble again.  Flooding has already ravaged the city and surrounding areas with ten inches of rain an hour at some points.  Heavy rainfall is scheduled for the next 45 hours as tropical storm Barry burrows down on them.  Parts of New Orleans are below sea level and the Mississippi river is at record height.  Flooding is up past the tires of cars if any can still run and much of the city looks like the canals of Venice.  Stay tuned. 

President Trump has backed off of his threat to use executive action to put the Census question about citizenship on the forms next year.  Instead the president going to consult the commerce department about another way of getting the citizenship figures Trump wants. 

The Dow Jones industrials closed at a new high today of over 27,000.  The markets are up sixteen percent for the year.  New job figures look good.  Gold is inching its way up over fourteen hundred.  It might be a good time to buy.  There doesn’t seem to be the slightest of any indication of an economic slow-down.  On the contrary it seems to be full speed ahead.

They had a mass wedding in Central Park representing the fifty-two states.  This is the politically correct version where the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were represented.  If you were to do a version of the 52 stars on the flag we would have it would be rows of 7, 8, 7, 8, 7, 8, 7 adding up to 52 or dividing fifteen in half.  I’m pretty sure that’s how they would do it.  

RELIGION IN THE SPOTLIGHT

I happened to have the thought that “What if the Holy Spirit” and God weren’t the same person.  If I wanted to be really snooty I would liken the holy spirit to Eve Donavin or Christine Di Mira.  You know, someone without any friends but they have high hopes of ruling the world or at least their little domain.  They want to be a key player.  You may ask me “How can they have power if they don’t have any friends?   That’s a mystery.  The holy spirit has friends of course, those who sharee his same fantasy.  But people like Christine Di Mira and Eve Donavin don’t need friends; they have circumstances on their side.  At least until now they do.  It’s a pretty good trick if you can pull it off. What if the sovereign god of the universe is tiring of over two thousand years of this spiritual Zionism stuff where the lamb of God is slain from the foundation of the world and was born to be “King of Israel” as the song says, otherwise known as the Lion King?  What if God decided to pull the plug on all of this guilt hand wringing stuff about “You sinful men killed the prince of Life” or whatever, preferring to preach a dead Christ rather than a living one.  I think it’s all growing old.  I think all of this Disney Lion King stuff is growing old too after 25 years.  And I think Star Wars has been driven into the ground with something they used to call “over-exposure”.  People have had enough of it and want to take a break from it.  How many times can you hear “A-cumma-Mettqada” or whatever and not have it coming out their ears?  I know I talk blasphemy; it’s blasphemy against Disney Corp. 

.  I still have a lot of other religious stuff to type but not today.  It would be interesting to see who speaks more truth.  Is it “God” or that which I believe to be God, or is it Satan, ever whispering in my ear, filling my head with stuff that robs me of my “faith”.  It also occurred to me that one could modify Origen’s statement to say “Not all justice is justice that is recognized by God”.  I have my sense of justice.  The Bible plainly teaches us “Our ways are not God’s ways.  This has certain implications.  If I’m really “totally morally depraved” as Calvinism teaches that I am, then how am I in any moral position to make a decision about something so weighty as my eternal destiny.  If someone was falling down drunk and Satan got them to sign a contract surrendering their soul for eternity, mightn’t someone say that that wasn’t fair because one signer was mentally incompetent?  I don’t know; ask Neil Savedra.  He says that by sheer force of the human will to have “Faith” then all obsticles are surmountable. 

I have just one more point to raise about the ministry of Jesus.  When John the Baptist was in prison he sent a message to Jesus' disciples of "Are you the annointed messiah or are we to expect another?"  Jesus responded, "Tell John that the blind see and the lame walk and the prison doors are opened and the captives are set free".  This last part is an allusion to Isaiah 61.  But in that case the "prison doors" referred to political prisoners of the government, I'm pretty sure.  Jesus spoke of it as being deliverance from demons and the dominion of Satan.   One might say he watered down the basic messianic message, which was primarily political.  However today you have people, probably Neil Savedra, saying they are suspicious of "Deliverance ministries".   I'm thinking, "Why would you want people not to be delivered from demons?"  The answer is there is a basic distrust of anything Supernatural among the religious community, particularly with Neil Savedra.  There are only two exceptions to this rule.  One is if they are in complete control of it like some kind of a staged theatrical production like Jim Jones "pulling cancer" out of patients.  The other is if it is some historical act where the primary goal was not deliverance or healing but to prove some etherial theological point.  The very arrival of the Holy Spirit was not primarily to "give people gifts" but to explain how the Church got here so quickly and didn't take the hundred years to get established that we all know it took.  (Selah)

All of the News that Fits

H Ross Perot died today of leukemia at age 89.  He was born in 1930 and I guess he started his own electronics company at age 32 and soon became a millionaire.  But then he sold out or something in 1984.  He ran for president in 1992 and got 19% of the popular vote.  George W Bush regards him as a great patriot.  He did a lot of charity work.   I voted for Ross Perot in 1992 and he is one of the few totally honest politicians.  We need more of them today. 

An eighteen month old girl named Clowie from Indiana fell through an open window in a child’s play area on a ship and fell eleven floors or 150 feet to her death.  Her grandfather held her up to the unknowingly open window and somehow she slipped through her grandfather’s hands.  They want to see the surveillance record.  It’s a strange case.

Trump praises Jeffrey Epstein because they are good friends.  This is the guy who ran that sex ring involving young girls as young as fourteen.  Clinton was also buddy-buddy with Epstein.  The secretary of labor was the prosecutor in the case that helped cover up his earlier crimes by giving absolution to fellow conspirators.  But now we hear this prosecution deal was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court because it didn’t take into account the victims bill of rights.  They were ordered to prosecute but then didn’t.   If Trump likes firing people now he should fire his secretary of labor and we’ll all feel better.  Of course people like Judy say “Well the package Trump comes in may be flawed but his heart’s in the right place”.    I do not understand this love affair between fundamentalist Christianity and President Trump.  By the way it isn’t up to me to “forgive” Trump’s sins against others.   It’s funny how Christians hate the idea of a lay person assuming the mantle of God except for one area.  They want me or anybody to assume the authority of God, who is the only one according to the Bible, that can forgive sins.  But there is some magnetic attraction between fundamentalist Christianity and President Trump.  

Police in England used to be like they are in America.  They could lie to suspects while questioning them and brow beat them and threaten them and get them to sign false confessions.  But they can’t do that anymore.  Knowing the police propensity to lie like on ‘Major Crimes’ I wouldn’t make any kind of a deal with the police even if I was guilty.  I would say “We have a legal system in this country and I’m choosing to let them do their jobs”.   I have yet to hear a suspect say “I respectfully decline to answer that question because I honestly believe my answer might tend to incriminate me”.   You also can’t deprive them of meals or getting rest.

Now they are in the process of perfecting drugs that literally switch off dangerous genes such as dreaded genetic inherited diseases, even Huntington’s disease.  They are trying out these drugs right now in patients with some success, and within five years or so they may be able to eliminate other diseases.  Who knows, maybe Downs sidrone or Tay Sachs.  We’ll see.  Of course some may say we are “playing God” and it’s always been up to the sovereignty of God whether a person was afflicted with some debilitating disease such as Huntington’s.

God can strike you down whenever he chooses.  On July 4^th there was this guy out in the desert working on his car and he had it up on a jack changing a tire.  Then the 6.4 earthquake strike and the guy was killed, crushed to death- - just like that.  They didn’t find the body till five days later and it’s the first death resulting from the two earthquakes we’ve had.

According to Christian litriture,  when you’re Born Again, like President Trump is alleged to have been a few years ago, God comes in and controls your life and “Self” is de-throwned to assume a subordinate role.  God is now the driving force that makes the decisions in your life.  According to Calvary Chapel, this is a wonderful thing.  It would mean if true, that “God” has been controlling the destiny of our country these past three years.  Of course if I ask why “God” isn’t leading my life I’m told glibly, “Well, miracles don’t occur today”.   That’s not what it says in the Bible.   I had other observations about Christianity but I’ll save them. 

7.1 "Aftershock" Strikes Southern California

This is Sunday July 7, 2019 and it’s Ringo’s 79^th birthday and also the first days of the running of the bulls in Pampalona, Spain.  It’s after one thirty and I’ve been fighting drowsiness all day.  It’s just something to talk to the doctor about.  It’s time we covered the Trump news.  I now believe that the odds are at least fifty-fifty that President Trump will be elected again given the media coverage and the trends we have seen before.  The economy has never been stronger with the addition of another 250,000 jobs last month and unemployment at 3.7%, which ties a fifty year record.  The economy most often is the leading factor on whether a president will be re-elected or not.  President Trump has risen to 44% in the polls, which is an all time high for him and in his mind it’s worth celebrating.  It doesn’t matter whether 53% of the people disapprove of his performance in office given the trend that nobody liked him in his own party four years ago but he still got nominated and elected.  The right wing cabal still rules even though they are a decided minority.  Of course the US Senate is Gerrymandered ALL of the time, not just in certain states.  This means it takes a very small percent of the US population to vote these republicans in in order to hang on to power.  You will have the courts making favorable rulings for Trump and of course you have kicking off voters off the rolls and also closing democratic polling places.  You have “caging” where they call you up and if they think you’ve moved they assume you’re illegal and they kick you off.   It’s funny how Chris Matthews didn’t even talk about Trump’s performance last Thursday with that parade and speech or whatever it was.  I missed everything because I was either out watching fireworks like normal people or else it was endless earthquake coverage.  All I know is Trump said something about the British taking over the airports in America in 1775.  He blamed this blooper on his tele-prompter.  Trump has a God-given talent of blaming anything on anything.  And people buy into his line of bullshit.  Now Trump is once again saying that Joe Biden is a lost cause even though he is still leading in the polls, both against the President and his democratic contenders.  Trump is like a wild animal.  He sees just a glimpse of weakness and he goes in for blood. 

As you know Southern California has had two major earthquakes in two days.  The first was 6.4 on the rictor scale and the other, the larger one, is 7.1 magnitude.  The first occurred at 10:33 o the Fourth of July and the 7.1 was Friday evening at 8:19.  I didn't even feel the shaking of the first quake because I was outside smoking, but I sure felt the shaking of the second one, which lasted over a minute.  Both struck the town of Ridgecrest and caused moderate damage for its size.  It's kind of a bummer just digging out from one and another bigger one strikes.  Both quakes have received heavy air play on the network news outlets and even on the BBC news.  It's rare that a 6.4 earthquake will be a foreshock to an even larger quake.  They said it was a nine percent chance of happening but it's something that's almost never happened before.  Both quakes were the largest California has experianced in the past twenty years.  If you've been following these quakes you know all about them anyhow, but perhaps a few readers of this haven't been following that closely.